1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer driver that generates print data and transmits the generated print data to a printer device, and to a computer-readable printer driver program recording medium having recorded thereon a printer driver program that causes a computer to perform processing for generating print data and transmitting the generated print data to the printer device.
Further, the present invention relates to a print data importing device used when importing, into the computer, print data that is transmitted to the printer device by the printer driver and recorded in the printer device, and to a computer-readable print data importing program recording medium having recorded thereon a print data importing program that is launched when importing, into the computer, print data that is transmitted to the printer device by the printer driver and recorded in the printer device.
Moreover, the present invention relates to a computer-readable installer recording medium having recorded thereon an installer that causes the computer to perform processing for installing a print data importing program recorded on a print data importing program recording medium, on the computer.
2. Related Art
A typical computer system requires many tools, such as application programs, for performing respective processes, such as, for example, creating a document, displaying, printing, registering/retrieving data in a database, or performing calculations; and input data corresponding to these tools. Normally, the above tools and data are recorded as files in a storage device of the computer, a storage device of another computer connected via a network, or the like, and are read out from the storage device and used when necessary.
A user often performs an operation by selectively using such tools and data. For example, when creating a document, the user selects a document file that was created before, and also launches a word processing application program, performs necessary editing, and creates a new document file. Also, when printing the document in the document file, the user launches a printing application program and transmits the document to a printer. Or, the user launches an e-mail application program and transmits the document to another recipient.
Further, according to the invention disclosed in JP H11-65795A, when a user selects a data area displayed on a display screen, a program retrieval launching means refers to a program control table and retrieves and launches a program corresponding to the selected data area, and data is processed by the program. This enables the program to be launched with ease.
When print data is transmitted from the computer to the printer device, document data and the like is converted into print data written in page description language (PDL), and the print data is outputted to the printer device. The printer device obtains and analyzes the print data, and records the document on recording paper.
Conventionally, print data is used exclusively by printer devices, and is not assumed to be reused on the computer side. Thus, it has been difficult to reuse the print data. For example, even if the print data is passed from the printer device to the computer and an attempt is made to reuse the print data on the computer side, it is not known which application program handled the original document data of the print data, resulting in difficulty in reusing the print data.
According to the invention disclosed in JP H11-65795A, the user selects the data area, and the necessary program is launched due to the selection of the data area. Thus, if the application program that handled the original document data of the print data is unknown, the selection of such data area cannot be properly performed.